Foothills students ‘come alive’ with service

Principal
Cherie Wilson, of Foothills Elementary
in Riverton, has recently been dancing around the school in a long-tailed red
jacket and top hat. Wilson played the part of the Greatest Showman for the
school’s Kindness Week assembly and isn’t ready to give up the role.

“I think [the students] are starting
to associate the ringmaster with kindness,” said Wilson. “I'll dress up in the
costume here and there during the day to bring the 'magic' to the kids—they get
so excited.”

Wilson
dazzled students and faculty at a kick-off
assembly, singing and dancing to music from the popular movie, “The
Greatest Showman.” The music, the energy, the dancing and the confetti stirred
the students into a frenzy of excitement.

“That soundtrack really speaks to
kids,” said Katie Thomas, a fifth-grade teacher who developed the idea for the
theme. “To be able to put that live for the kids—that was incredible.”

Students
were invited to “Come Alive” with kindness and look for opportunities to help
and compliment others all week. They were provided with kindness buttons to
trade with each other whenever they performed or received a kind deed.

“The
principal exchanged hers about 50 times in the lunchroom alone,” said Thomas.

Thomas
is the leader of the Excellence Team, a group of teachers who work to create a
positive atmosphere in the school. Their previous Kindness Week, held in December,
highlighted reasons to be kind.

“This time, we really saw a need to
focus on service,” said Thomas.

During May’s Kindness
Week, students gave service to their
school, country, community and to themselves. Classes participated in
neighborhood cleanup projects, a clothing drive and writing letters to
servicemen. They competed in a penny wars competition to raise money for
Primary Children's Medical Center’s cancer research.

The
students had a visual reminder to think of others: an ever-growing paper chain,
detailing kind acts each student had performed, stretched along the hallway
walls. To the delight of students, Wilson was also taped to the wall [JM1]as a reward when the chain finally grew long enough to loop
through the entire school.

Wilson
said
the fun and positive atmosphere Team Kindness (which included Student Council
members and the Excellence Team) created provides a better learning environment
for students.

“When kids feel safe, loved and cared
for, they will work harder,” she said.

Kindness
has become the culture of the school.

“Kids look for those kind acts, and
it has just become the norm,” said Wilson. “Staff are recognizing each other,
students are recognizing each other, and students will recognize their teachers
and vice versa. It's great.”

Kindness Week officially began April 30 with Comcast
Cares Day, when 568 community members, school staff and Comcast employees worked
to complete service projects around the school.

Comcast employee Britton
Carroll said Foothills had the largest group of volunteers of all six Comcast Cares sites that day.

“There
were so many people here, we ran out of projects to do,” said Wilson.

She
said the work allotted for the four-hour time frame was finished in two.

“It
was amazing—the turnout and the support of this community,” she said.

Volunteers
happily cleaned classrooms and washed walls and windows. When they were done,
they moved on to bathrooms and the library.

There
were plenty of opportunities for volunteers of all ages to help, said Amy
Sheetz, who brought her three children to help.

“They
had enough kid-appropriate jobs for them,” said Sheetz. “They had little
buckets that the kids could put the bark in and haul it over to the flower
beds.”

Foothills
students were excited to help serve their school, many of them clocking the service
hours necessary to earn their Mustang Pride Award. To earn the end of the year
award, students K-3 are required to perform four hours of service; grades 4-6
require twice that amount. Thirty to 40 percent of students earn the award each
year.